Haitian Ministries Mission House Still Waiting To Be Rebuilt

Three-story Mission House Remains A Debris Pile

When a January earthquake devastated Haiti, the Norwich diocese's Haitian Ministries' mission house collapsed onto three people.

Two staff members were trapped for 10 hours in the rubble of the Port-au-Prince mansion. (You can see before and after photos at http://www.courant.com/susan.)

Though she was gravely injured, Lanitte Belledente, a Haitian employee who had work at the house for 18 years, insisted on staying at the site to direct searchers to her colleagues. Employees thought Belledente would lose both her legs. She lost one of them.

Haitian Ministries provided Belledente with a prosthetic and the other injured are healing, but the three-story mission house remains a debris pile.

In late January, the diocese raised $430,892 in a special collection for Haiti relief, according to a March 2010 Four County Catholic column by Bishop Michael R. Cote. He wrote that the money would be distributed among Haiti's Hospice St. Joseph, Catholic Relief Services and the mission house.

But 10 months after the earthquake, says Emily Smack, executive director of Haitian Ministries, the mission house hasn't received any funds from the special collection. On its own, Haitian Ministries, collected $817,630 — roughly $43,800 of which donors asked to be set aside for the mission house. The rest has been distributed and will continue to be distributed to a variety of Haiti-based organizations, said Smack.

So far, money collected for the mission house has gone to buy appliances and computers, paid rent for their temporary quarters and paid for salaries, emergency aid and medical care for staff. At the old site, they've set up a fence and hired security guards.

Smack said the bishop told her that he had give approval to rebuild the mission house once the ministries was ready to start building, but in the wake of such need around them — Smack said 66 children are living on a porch at an orphanage supported by the ministries — they've yet to address their own needs.

Michael Strammiello, diocese communications director, said Haiti's upheaval has made the diocese careful about the distribution of funds.

"The money has been on slow release because of the chaos down there," said Strammiello. "Every one wanted to be sure the money is released properly. In a general way, Bill Clinton has received the same question on the billions of dollars he is responsible for."

Strammiello said the large January donation has been distributed (in rough figures) this way: $100,000 to Catholic Relief Services; $100,000 to Hospice St. Joseph (with $80,000 "on its way"), and $85,000 to the local bishop.

"That's $365,000 being carefully distributed as we speak," said Strammiello. "There's no question the environment right now is very unstable, but we've been doing business there for close to 30 years —– with reliable partners —– and even with them we've been extremely careful. We wish the funds had gone down entirely, but the money needs to get into the right hands for the right purposes."

As for money to Haitian Ministries, Strammiello said, "If there's an opportunity there, I'm sure they're being considered. There shouldn't be a separation of interest there."

"I appreciate their concern about wanting to make sure the money is used appropriately," said Greg Secord, former Haitian Ministries board chairman. Meanwhile, the house remains a pile of rubble.